After Life: Just What the World Needs

To be honest I didn’t expect Ricky Gervais to make such a compelling web series. Ricky Gervais is probably one of the most intelligent celebrities I have seen. He is unapologetically honest in his opinions, and his stand ups are outright offensive and disgustingly brilliant (only he could imagine his sagging testicles like a raft on which his penis rests). He has also hosted the Golden Globe awards multiple times (much to the chagrin of the celebs in attendance). You can’t really blame the celebs for hating him when he introduces Bruce Willis as ‘Ashton Kutcher’s dad’.

But After Life is different. Of course it does have his caustic humour in generous amount. It however shows a very mature, human and intellectual aspect of Ricky Gervais both as the writer/director as well as the actor.

After Life tells the tale of Tony played by Ricky Gervais who is grieving the death of his wife due to cancer. She has recorded videos of herself telling him to move on when she is gone. Her absence sends Tony in a spiral of hurt and anger, and many times finds him close to killing himself. He hates the world which he feels is full of ‘arseholes’. He doesn’t waste time in pleasing anyone, and hates people for the flimsiest reason (someone yawning or chewing too loudly). He chides a postman who often reads his mail, in the most savage way possible.

Other moments include him threatening a kid with a hammer or calling him to a ‘tubby little ginger cunt’. He works for a small time newspaper and where primarily he interviews people who feel they have something special in them (like interviewing the parents of a newborn who resembles Adolf Hitler).

The only thing that stops Tony from dying is a bunch of friends who never give up on him despite being tired of his inability to look beyond his grief and being horrible to everyone around him.

Despite being only 6 episodes in length, After Life is probably the perfect antidote to the usual fare that is available on TV or the Web (seriously I have had enough of ISIS-Balochistan-ISI mess). This is one show which genuinely makes you laugh and cry in equal measure. Probably cry more because Ricky Gervais brilliantly portrays the pained soul of Tony. Tony is a mix of all our frustrations and hurt. Everything and everyone annoys him. Which is the case with all of us at some point in life. Or most of life for some. But sooner or later, we do manage to realise that everything and everyone eventually becomes a memory. And it is important to cherish them while they last.

Cheers to the makers of After Life. And cheers again because there is going to be a second season.

(*above images sourced from Ricky Gervais' instagram)

How Endgame Made 3000 A New Measure For Awesomeness! (Spoilers galore)

And there it is. A plan set in motion 11 years ago, spanning 22 films and many superheroes, finally culminated into an epic finale with Avengers Endgame.

Just like any ardent MCU movie fan, i cant help but feel emotional at the conclusion. While I felt that the one year wait for endgame was torture at the highest, now that its here and I have watched it, I feel a void.

One has to appreciate the MCU and all those behind these movies. Jon Favreau started it all with the brilliant Iron Man. And he gave us one of the greatest superheroes of all time; Robert Downey Jr. If Tony Stark had a face then it had to be RDJ. I think Stan Lee created Tony Stark in 1963 keeping RDJ in mind. Maybe time travel does exist.

Which brings me to the Russo brothers. Endgame is an epic. The creative brilliance of their minds has somehow managed to create the finale which honestly I felt was impossible. The scale, the merging plot lines, the characters, and eventually the conclusion, in the time frame of 3 hours is just phenomenal. For me they are the real superheroes. They had me and a hundred others in the audience hooting and clapping like 12 year olds.

I have no qualms in admitting, that we can never reach that level of brilliance in Indian cinema. We will continue making SOTY and Kalank. Don't even mention Bhavesh Joshi. That movie sucked. A useless protagonist with a stick as weapon and LEDs needlessly placed in his helmet. That movie could have been so much more. And yet wasn’t.

Back to Endgame. A few dampers. We would have loved some more info on Prof Hulk. Sadly, Hulk never really found his mojo since the first Avenger movie. The following movies didn’t really give him enough ‘Hulk...Smash’ moments. And I definitely didn’t like the fat Thor. C’mon man, he deserved another ‘Bring me Thanos’ moment. Chris Hemsworth will always be Thor for me – the strongest Avenger.

But the character to whom most justice was done was Thanos. In Infinity War, I felt that Thanos was invincible on paper, and somehow the character didn’t feel as dangerous as he was made out to be. Towards the end, you would want to see some goodness in him especially at his hurt for Gamora. But in Endgame you realise just how badass the character is as he single-handedly kicks all the superhero ass, and almost kills everyone. Take a bow Josh Brolin. When Thanos says that this time earth’s destruction will be personal, it had me worried.

And I feel so happy that Antman was responsible for the whole time travel/quantum realm thing. Its only natural that Paul Rudd should know a thing or two about time travel in real life too. He has refused to age since appearing as Mike on friends. Thats the only plausible explanation.

And the Mjolnir scene. Thats another brilliant moment in the movie. All of us have read at some point that Cap is worthy enough to lift Mjolnir and even does so in the comics. But when that scene came on screen, I literally got up from my chair and hooted my lungs off. That scene alone was more than my money’s worth. Oh and his line ‘Avengers....Assemble’! Goosebumps!

Captain Marvel and her screen time, though limited, give us a fair idea on how powerful her character is. She almost single-handedly decimates Thanos and his army (besides saving Stark among other things). I really hope that future Captain Marvel movies will do justice to the character and Brie Larson too. That hairstyle is just out of this world.

I felt the Ronin bit was unnecessary. It did nothing for the character of Barton in the film. But Renner gets his due as well. We also get to see the actor side of Renner as he chokes up on receiving the phone call from his wife.

Which finally brings me to Tony Stark/Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr. Captain America might be the leader of the group, but we all know who rules the team. The MCU has given countless and rather obvious hints to this fact in the last 11 years. Tony and his father Howard remain the vital catalysts in making the events of Endgame possible. I mean, when the audience roots for Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War, you know who is the boss. Oh and the Jarvis bit was awesome.

I would have loved to see some more awesomeness in Iron Man’s suit but I can live with that. What I can’t live with is the fact that Tony dies. Why him? You could have picked out any other superhero and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid (ok maybe not Thor or Spiderman). Bucky for that matter. I was not ready!

But the harsh truth is that the series has concluded. We will no longer see RDJ, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Scarlet together.

Thank you Stan Lee and Marvel. The pleasure was entirely ours. Excelsior! 

And when GOT ends in a month, I will absolutely lose it.

And just like that...the Game ends! 

*All images sourced from the Internet